Bruin baseball claims league-opening victory over Douglas

Bryce Aldrich slides across home plate to end the game in the fifth inning of game one of Saturday’s doubleheader against Coquille. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

Rain made a mess of things on the ballfield in Douglas on Tuesday but that didn’t stop the Brookings-Harbor High School Bruins varsity baseball team from defeating the Trojans 5-2.

Bruin Pitcher A.J. Briganti went seven innings, holding the Trojans to one run in the fifth and one in the sixth.

“A.J. did really well in poor conditions,” said Bruin Coach Darrel Nelson. “It started raining really good halfway through the game, but he battled through it.”

The game remained scoreless until the third inning when two Bruin runners made it home on an RBI double by Corwin Farquhar.

The Bruins came back again in the fourth inning, scoring two more runs with RBI singles by Trevor Gallian and Isaac Sanders, Nelson said.

The Trojans returned the favor, scoring a single run in the fifth and fourth innings.

However, the Bruins clinched the victory with an insurance run in the seventh with an RBI single by Bryce Aldrich.

The rain has been troublesome for the Bruins for weeks, leaving them unable to practice on key areas, Nelson said.

“We’re still looking to gel, we have a lot of things to work on, but we haven’t had much time to practice because of the rain,” he said. “At this point, we’ve played more games than we’ve practiced.”

The Bruins had impetus headed into Tuesday’s game with doubleheader victories at home over the Red Devils of Coquille.

The Bruins won both games 12-2, but it left Nelson wishing for a little more.

“It’s preseason,” he said. “We’d like to play close ball games all the way down the stretch and see everyone get as many opportunities to get in as possible.”

Nelson wasn’t completely happy with the offensive side of the game, but praised the defense.

“We’re not there yet offensively,” he said. “We’re more aggressive at the bases, which is where we’re going to have to use our speed, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be to compete with good teams.”

“We’re pretty solid defensively,” he added. “The more reps we get the better we’re going to be.”